Phytoplankton Bloom in North Sea off Scotland

The northern and western highlands of Scotland were still winter-brown and even dusted with snow in places, but the waters of the North Sea were blooming with phytoplankton on May 8, 2008, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over the region and captured this image. The tiny, plant-like organisms swirled in the waters off the country’s east coast, coloring the shallow coastal waters shades of bright blue and green.

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NASA image by Norman Kuring, Ocean Color Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.

Published May 13, 2008
Data acquired May 8, 2008

Source:

Aqua > MODIS